


Find one fun thing

by rudbeckia



Series: Princess [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Awkward Flirting, F/F, First Kiss, amileia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 12:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13764501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Set the night of the first meeting of teenage Leia and Amilyn in the novel “Leia: Princess of Alderaan” (Claudia Gray)Amilyn isn’t ready to go to bed yet and Leia can’t sleep for thinking about her failures. Amilyn has some useful advice for the princess:find one fun thing to do, and do it until you feel better.Leia decides to take that advice.





	Find one fun thing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [valda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/valda/gifts).



It was late and the cabin almost vibrated with the snores of her companions coming from the bunkrooms, but Amilyn was not ready for sleep. She was tired after her day on the pathfinding expedition, but not exhausted like the group who’d gone ahead, looking for an advantage in abandoning their injured team mate in a treacherously icy snowdrift. Their punishment was that they’d had to walk while she’d seen potential in the pristine snowfield that jogged a joyful memory, and made a toboggan from her emergency tent. Then Sssamm had immediately improved it _with his own glittering, snake-like coils_ and they’d sailed home to get their team mate’s ankle in bacta before the others arrived back.

It warmed her more than the fire in the hearth or the mocoa she’d sipped at suppertime to remember the look of exhilaration on Leia’s face. It had warmed her inside and out to hear the serious princess scream with glee.

“Are you not tired?”  
Amilyn looked up and beamed a smile at Leia. “Aren’t you?”  
“I don’t feel like sleeping yet,” replied Leia, settling into the chair next to hers, feet tucked up. “There’s too much from today to think about.”  
“Oh,” Amilyn turned her gaze back to the dancing flames but they no longer held her interest. She studied the orange, flickering highlights and deep shadows of Leia’s pale skin instead. “I rarely find that to be a problem.”  
That made Leia smile and Amilyn basked in it. “You know,” said Leia, “if we hadn’t used your idea we would have failed today.”  
Amilyn stared at Leia for a few seconds, brows wrinkling in confusion. “But we did! And we didn’t.”

Leia gazed at the fire, lips in a pout Amilyn wanted to kiss, and the flames reflected from her eyes flecked her brown irises with amber. Resisting the impulse, Amilyn reached over and clasped the small hand that rested on the arm of Leia’s chair instead.  
“Did you have fun today?” she asked once she was sure Leia was not going to snatch her hand back. “I did. I was sorry not to have seen any snow owls. They’re pretty. Like porgs only fluffier.”  
“I suppose I did have fun,” said Leia, fighting the urge to ask what a porg was. “On the way up I thought that I would have loved today if it didn’t matter whether I passed or failed. I would have stopped to look at the snow and the trees and the sky and... are you laughing at me?”  
Amilyn’s face wore a delighted grin. “No! I’m happy you had more fun on the way back down. Why?”  
“Why what?”  
“Why does passing and failing matter?”  
Leia was lost for words for a minute. Wasn’t it obvious? “Well,” she said slowly. “If I pass I become the official heir to the throne of Alderaan. If I fail then I don’t and no one has ever failed before this.”  
“They’d really base their decision of whether or not you’re the next queen on whether or not you can slide down a snowfield on an upended tent at a speed that makes you shriek?”  
Leia smiled at the memory, terror already forgotten, and Amilyn squeezed her hand. But the moment passed. “It’s more than that,” she said.  
“You know,” said Amilyn after a couple of minutes contemplating the embers, “when I used to feel overwhelmed, I would look for one fun thing to do, then do it until I felt better.”

Leia thought back to Amilyn’s words when they thought they were going to have to stumble down the mountain in eventual darkness only to arrive late and fail. _When I was a little girl, I used to love tobogganing._ Not, “Hey, let’s make a toboggan,” or, “I know what to do, follow my lead,” but a simple hint. A suggestion, followed by a demonstration when nobody saw the importance of her words. Leia closed her eyes and swallowed. Her real failure today had been in not recognising her team mate’s value, writing her off as a bit odd with her acid-green hair and rainbow clothes and glitter-encrusted field generator and dreamy way of speaking. Leia had even wondered silently when Amilyn went to look for owls if the girl might be stoned.

“I’m sorry.” Leia took her hand back at last and Amilyn missed its warmth.  
“What for?”  
“I wasn’t listening to you properly today. I thought—“  
“At first-school the teachers thought I was stupid,” said Amilyn. “It’s okay.”  
“No it’s not,” insisted Leia, turning her face away. “I should have asked you to show us what you meant instead of putting you down.”  
“Well, we got here, didn’t we? Besides,” Amilyn grinned and winked. “Who put you in charge?”

Another moment passed and this time Leia took Amilyn’s hand in hers. Amilyn smiled and rubbed her thumb over Leia’s delicate knuckles.  
“One fun thing to do, huh?” said Leia.  
“Mmhmm, and do it until you feel better.” Amilyn watched Leia’s face soften. “I like watching the flames. It makes me happy to look for shapes in them.”  
“I don’t see anything from here,” said Leia with a sigh.  
“Oh? Why don’t you see what you can see from here,” said Amilyn, shifting over and patting the space beside her on the oversized armchair. Leia laughed and squeezed in. Amilyn threw her arm around Leia’s shoulders and held on. “Is this okay?”  
Leia nodded. “I still can’t see any shapes in the flames,” she said.  
“Is that because you’re not looking at the fire?” asked Amilyn, noticing how soft and rounded Leia’s cheekbones were. She stroked Leia’s face with a finger and swept it down around her jawline to her chin. “I like your face.”  
Amilyn cupped Leia’s face, closed her eyes and touched their lips together. Leia didn’t seem to mind, and didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands. Amilyn took one of Leia’s hands and pressed it to her waist, then kissed Leia again. Leia responded this time with careful enthusiasm and heat kindled in Amilyn’s core, a want that had first sparked that morning when the caf-swilling princess had stuck out her hand and said _I’m Leia Organa_ on the snowy mountainside, as if nobody knew already.

Somewhere something creaked and Leia broke off their embrace, hand removed from under Amilyn’s tunic, head up and eyes darting around the room.  
“I used to live in a house that creaked and groaned all night because it was made of wood,” said Amilyn. “I got to like it after a while. It felt like the house was talking to me.”  
“Perhaps the house is telling us to go to bed,” said Leia, face burning at the sudden realisation that her words might be taken as an unwelcome come-on. She stood up and so did Amilyn, stretching her lithe frame high and shaking out her limbs. Leia smiled and reached up to touch a loose curl, dark in the orange firelight. “I like your hair,” said Leia. “I didn’t at first but it’s... it suits you.”  
Amilyn smiled a little wickedly. “It all matches. Want to see?”


End file.
